Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) sprinted to victory on stage 2 of the Volta a Catalunya in Banyoles, holding off Noa Isidore (Decathlon-CMA CGM) in the dash to the line after the peloton caught breakaway survivor Liam Slock (Lotto-Intermarché) a kilometre from the finish.
Cort hit the front with 150 metres to go of the 167.4km stage from Figueres, taking over from Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), who had put in a powerful burst of speed with 350 metres remaining.
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How it unfolded
Stage 2 of the Volta a Catalunya would take the riders on a 167.4km run from Figueres to Banyoles. The 1,900 metres of elevation and single classified climb along the way not expected to disrupt the sprinters in their pursuit of a mass sprint finish.
It wouldn’t take long for the breakaway to get away, with a group of five jumping away on the lumpy terrain in the early kilometres of the stage.
The Lotto-Intermarché pair of Liam Slock and Baptiste Veistroffer were joined in the move by Julen Arriolabengoa (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Samuel Fernández (Euskaltel-Euskadi), and Diego Uriarte (Equipo Kern Pharma) in the move.
Ineos Grenadiers, EF Education-EasyPost, and NSN were among the teams working in the peloton behind, though the break were permitted to get up the road and build a gap of three minutes.
After 21km, the break passed the only climb of the day, the third-category Alt del Purgatori. Veistroffer, almost the mountain classification leader after stage 1, added three points to his lead to take his tally to 16.
At 103km to go, the Frenchman led the break over the first intermediate sprint of the day at Peralada, taking three points and three bonus seconds. It was the same story just over 40km later at Besalú, where Veistroffer passed stage 1 winner Dorian Godon to move into the points lead.
A split in the peloton shortly afterwards on a hilly…
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